Yale researchers making headway in quest to solve autism’s mysteries

September 13, 2012

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now estimates that 1 in 68 U.S. children are on the autism spectrum. For boys the number is even higher with 1 in 54 affected. As the numbers climb, autism remains a frustrating mystery for families, clinicians, and researchers.

The Yale Child Study Center and other departments at Yale have been in the vanguard of helping define and treat the disorder as well as offering clues to the genetic mechanisms that give rise to autism.

Yale’s efforts to increase understanding of autism have made headlines. Here is a look at those stories, as well as other key autism research findings over the years at Yale.

When given early treatment, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) made significant improvements in behavior, communication, and most strikingly, brain function, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study.

Yale geneticist Matthew State and neurobiologist Nenad Sestan say that researchers are now positioned to unravel the pathology underlying autism spectrum disorders and to identify new and more personalized approaches to its treatment.

The reasons autism spectrum disorders are almost five times more common among boys than girls may be revealed, thanks to a five-year, $15 million National Institutes of Health grant to Yale School of Medicine for the Autism Centers of Excellence research program.

Yale Child Study Center professor James McPartland explains why a wide autism spectrum may explain the CDC's estimate that 1 in 88 U.S. children are autistic, and how new diagnosis criteria from the American Psychiatric Association might change the way the disorder is defined.

As the American Psychological Association prepares to update its diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders in 2013, autism diagnosis is expected to change for many children. Yale researchers look at the impact of new diagnostic criteria.

Children with autism spectrum disorders who also have serious behavioral problems responded better to medication combined with training for parents than to treatment with medication alone, according to new research.

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have discovered in the placenta what may be the earliest marker for autism, possibly helping physicians diagnose the condition at birth, rather than the standard age of two or older.